George h



(No Model.)

G. H. BROWN. RIBBON HOLDER.

No. 480,556. Patented Aug. 9, 1892.

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INVENTOH:

AT OHNEYS WITNESSES I UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

GEORGE H. BROWN, OF LONG ISLAND CITY, NEWV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES H. TIBBITS, OF SAME PLACE.

RIBBON-HOLDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 480,556, dated August 9, 1892.

Appli ati n filed November 6. 1891. Serial No. 411.032. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE H. BROWN, of Long Island City, in the county of Queens and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Ribbon-Holder, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in a device for holding ribbon and analogous articles; and the object of my invention is to produce a simple device which may be secured to the spool of a roll of ribbon,braid, or similar article and which will hold the ribbon with an even tension and which will also guide the ribbon so that it may be rewound upon the spool as evenly as it was at first.

A further object of my invention is to construct the spool for carrying the ribbon and the holder in such a manner that a number of spools may be piled one upon the other with the same facility as can the ordinary spools.

To this end myinvention consists in certain features of construction and combinations of parts, which will be hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar figures of referenceindicate corresponding parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a perspective View of a spool of ribbon provided with my improvements. Fig. 2 is a cross-section through the spool, showing the holder in detail. Fig. 3 is a detail end view of the spool and holder. Fig. 4 is a detail plan View of the ribbon guide and holder. Fig. 5 is a broken sectional view of a modified form of holder as applied to a spool, and Fig. 6 is a broken end view of the same.

The spool 10 is of the ordinary construction, except that it has end recesses 11, in which the body of the holder and the springs thereof may lie, so that the spools may be piled readily one upon another without any interference from the holder, and the spoolis adapted to carry the ribbon 12 and the usual strip of paper 13, which is wound with the ribbon to prevent the latter from beingsoiled and to facilitate its easy winding and unwinding. The spool may be made of any material, but is preferably made hollow and of light cheap substance, such as paperboard, and in this case the central portions of the ends of the spool are reinforced, as shown at 14, so as to form a bearing for the holder-arms.

The holder is made, preferably, of wire and extends across the face of the spool, as shown at 15, and is doubled, so that its sides 16 will extend radially across the ends of the spool, these side pieces 16 being bent under attheir lower ends, as shown at 17, and the bent portions 17 approximate in length to the depth of the recesses 11, so that a keeper is formed between the bent parts 17 and the part 15, which keeper is adapted to embrace the fabric upon the spool. From the bent parts 17 the wire of the holder extends tangentially across the ends of the spool, forming the springarm 18, and is coiled to form the springs 19, which give the necessary tension to the holder, and from the springs the wire of the holder extends inward, forming the spring-arm 20, to a point opposite the ends of the spool, where it is again bent inward, as shown at 21, these ends entering perforations in the end of the spool, and thus forming a bearing for the holder. The springs 19 should be sufficientlystrong so that when the ribbon is unwound the part 15 of the holder will be pressed against the face of the spool, as shown in Fig. 3, and the coils 19 are short enough so that they will be retained within the recesses 11 of the spool. The part 15 is adapted to press upon the outer surface of the ribbon or other fabric, as shown in Fig. 1, and it will be seen that as the fabric is unwound the said part 15 will continue to press with a nearlyequal tension upon the ribbon. A small wire 22 extends nearly parallel with the part 15 of the holder and is bent near the ends, as shown at 23, and is coiled at the ends around the part 15 of the holder, thus forming a keeper, which is adapted to receive the ribbon 12, as shown in Figs. 1 and 4, and this keeper serves as a guide, so that in case a quantity of ribbon is unrolled it may be rolled back evenly upon the spool.

To operate the holder, the operator grasps the springs 19 between the thumb and finger of one hand and with the other hand pulls the paper and ribbon or other fabric 12 from the spool, and the spool will turn on the bent ends 21 of the holder, while the tension of the holder on the ribbon will cause the ribbon to run evenly, and to rewind the ribbon the spool is held in the same manner and turned back in the opposite direction.

It will be understood that the holder may be of a somewhat ditferent shape from that shown in the drawings without departing from the principle of my invention; but it is essential that the keeper formed at the outer portion of the holder should be spring-pressed and that the spring portion of the holder be contained within the recesses of the spool, so that the spools may be nicely piled upon each other.

As shown in Figs. 5and 6, spiral springs 24 are substituted for the spring-arms 18 and 20 of the holder, the springs having their outer ends secured to the main keeper near the parts 17 and their inner ends secured to studs 25, which are pivoted in the ends of the spool.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Paten t A ribbon-holder comprising a spool having recessed ends, a main keeper extending across the face of the spool, the said keeper having arms extending across the ends of the spool, which arms are formed into spiral springs and having bent ends pivoted in the spool ends, and a guide-keeper secured to the main keeper opposite the face of the spool, substantially as described.

GEORGE H. BROWN.

Witnesses:

WARREN B. HUTCHINSON, E. M. CLARK. 

